Thread holder for weft replenishing looms



NOV. 6, 1934; Q v PAYNE 1,979,765

THREAD HOLDER *FOR WEFT REPLENISHING LOOMS Filed Oct. 19. 1931 Oscar U.Pen ne attorzrs Patented Nov. 6, 1934 UNITED ATENT oFrlcE THREAD HOLDERFOR WEFT REPLENISHING LOOMS Application October 19, 1931, Serial No.569,586

8 Claims. (Cl. 139247) This invention relates to improvements in threadholders for weft replenishing looms and itis the general object of theinvention to provide means for improving the mode of operation of thedevices which keep the reserve weft ends taut.

In weft replenishing looms more particularly of the multicolor typethere ordinarily extend from the reserve bobbins a number of weft ends.As the bobbins descend these ends are likely to become slack, with theresult that on the pick following transfer the loose or slack ends maybe broken. It is an important object of mypresent invention to providetravelling or moving surfaces which engage the reserve ends to hold thesame taut, said surfaces being actuated in any way, as by vibration ofthe loom, and being preferably retarded so as not to override and pull01f an excess'amount of thread.

It is another object of my present invention to provide a pair of gearsone to drive the other so that the weft ends lie between the looselymeshed gears without danger of being broken or abraded as the gearsrotate. I have found that if the gear teeth are smooth they can havedriving relation with each other without injuring the yarn on which theyact.

. Occasionally the weft ends which lie between the gears will be drawntoward one end of the gear teeth, and to prevent the thread ends from 80passing beyond the teeth I provide a substantially resilient flatdisk-like member which will limit movement of the weft ends to preventthem from passing beyond control of the teeth. The disk also exerts anend friction on the gears so that the latter will not override thedriving im- H pulses which they receive from the actuator.

, It is another object of my invention to make one'of the geared membersmovable so that the degree of meshing can be varied. Inthis way theforce acting to deform and thus drag the weft ends can be changed tomeetdifferent conditions, such as change in type of thread from relativelycoarse yarn where little drag is needed to fine polished yarn, as rayon,where a greater deformation is needed.

" With these and other objects in view which will appear as thedescription proceeds, my invention resides in the combination andarrangement of parts hereinafter described and set forth in the claims.

' I In the accompanying drawing, wherein a convenient embodiment of myinvention is set forth, Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a portion of aloom showing themanner of applying my present in- ,55 vention,

Fig. 2 is an enlarged end elevation taken in the direction of arrow 2,Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a reverse view of the structure shown in Fig. 2 with the coverremoved to disclose the matter on the inside of the casing,

Fig. 4 is a horizontal section on line 4-4 of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the dampening or retarding element.

Referring to the drawing, the loom 10 is provided with the magazine 11supplied with reserve bobbins 12 from whichvextend weft ends W. Inmulticolor looms the shuttle S on the lay L receives the lowest bobbinin the stack corresponding thereto and ispicked to the opposite side ofthe loom while the weft end of the freshly transferred bobbin is held atthe magazine side. The magazine may be of the type set forth in PatentNo. 1,030,748 and of itself forms no part of my present invention. Itincludes in its construction a tie rod 13 on which is secured an arm 14.The lower end of the latter has a foot 15 to which is attached a casing16.

A weighted mass 17 is supported in the casing on resilient hangers 18the upper ends of which may be attached by screws 19 to the casing. Aresilient pawl 20 is secured to the weight and is positioned to actuatea ratchet 21 mounted on and moving with a shaft 22.

As the loom operates there will be sufiicient shaking or vibration ofthe magazine and the arm 14 to cause a movement of the casing 16. Theresulting reciprocations of the upper parts of the hangers 18 transmit ayielding force to the weighted mass 17 and the latter is found tovibrate by a motion substantially parallel to its length. Vibration isfound to exist in practically all directions at the lower end of the arm14, but I prefer to use that exerted in a horizontal direction andpreferably perpendicular to the lay.

The matter thus far described operates during normal running of the loomto rotate the ratchet 21 with a left hand step by step movement asviewed in Fig. 3 so as to cause rotation of the shaft 22 in a counterclock-wise direction, as suggested by the arrow A. The structure on arm14 thus far set forth of itself forms no part of my present invention,as it has been proposed by me heretofore in Patent No. 1,842,731.

In carrying my present invention into effect I provide two gear toothedthread tensioners 30 and 31 which are located, respectively, at theright and left hand sides of Fig. 2. Tensioner 31 is secured to theshaft 22 so as to rotate there- 11 with, said shaft and its connectionwith the geared element being as set forth in Fig. 4. The nut 32 servesto clamp the tensioner to the shoulder 33 of the shaft 22, and islocated in a recess 34 so as not to become entangled with the weft ends.

The other tensioning element 30 may have a mounting similar to the onefirst described, its shaft 35 rotating freely in a movable bearing 36,the foot 37 of which is provided with slots 38. Screws 29 extend throughthe slots and into the casing 16 to secure the foot 37 in position, and

afford a horizontal adjustment of the shaft '35- relatively to the shaft22. One wall 39 of the casing is provided with a slot or openingIO-through which the bearing 36 extends.

The tensioning members 30 and 31 have'teeth 41 and 42, respectively,which are preferably made substantially as shown in Fig. 2, that is theyare spaced by slots somewhat larger than the teeth to afford ample roomfor the weft ends W without pinching the latter. The teeth 42 aredrivenby the ratchet 21 and by their engagement with the teeth 41 rotate thedriven tensioner 30. In this way the teeth of the two elements 30 and 31are brought successively in engagement with each other 'so as to providetravelling surfaces each of which intersects. the path of the other. Theweft ends W extend overa shelf 43 overhanging the left or inner ends ofthe gears as viewed in Fig. 4. Rotationof the gears is in such adirection that the meshing teeth move downwardly or away from thethreads so as to engage and tension the latter. p

Under certain conditions the Weight 17 will be quite active and rotatethe gears at such a rate as will tend to draw off the weft ends toofast. When the weight moves to the right, Fig. 3, on a working stroke,sunici'ent force may'be imparted to the gears to cause them -to continuemovement during the return or non-working stroke of the pawl 20. Inorder to dampen this excess motion of the gears I provide a dished disk50 'lying'be tween the wall 39 and the adjacent ends of the geartensioners. This disk is provided with a hole 51 throughwhich extendsthe shaft 22 and its bearing 52, and also'has a slot 53 through whichextends the horizontally adjustable bearing 36. As suggested moreparticularly in Fig. 4, disk 50 has its periphery curved slightly awayfrom the plane of the main part of the disk so as to exert a pressure onthe gear tensioners which will check the tendency ofthelatter to'm'oveunder their own momentum when the weighted mass 1'7 vibrates rapidly.

There is 'a further function performed by the disk 50, namely, the weftends which may be move'd'toward'the wall 39 by action of the gears areprevented by'said disk from moving beyond the teeth. By thisconstruction assurance is'given that the weftends will always be'operatively related to the gear tensioners and so be subjected to astresswh'ich will tend to hold them taut and prevent sagging as thebobbins descend in the magazine or rotate on their axes.

I have found also that by making the gear tensioners out of moldedbakelite the driving connection betweenthe teeth which engage the weftendswill not abrade the latter. The only force which need be transmittedby the teethis that required to 'Iriove'the gear 30 againstits owninertia and the stressm'aintaiiied by the disk '50.

'Fr'or'nthe foregoing it will be seen'that I have provided a threadholder with a pair of travelling surfaces each "of which intersects thepath of the other to engage and tension weft ends, and that thetensioners, which may be made in the form of gears, are so related thatone drives the other. It will also be seen that the disk 50 serves toarrest excess motion on the part of the tensioners and serves further toprevent the weft ends from passing beyond controlling relation withrespect to the teeth or travelling surfaces of the tensioners. Again, itwill be seen that the vmovable mounting provided for the shaft 35enables the driven gear or tensioner to be moved to the desired positionwith respect to the driving gear and this adjustment does not interferein any waywith the driving connections for the tensioner which rotatesin the relatively fixed bearing 52.

Having thus described my invention it will be seen that changes andmodifications may be made therein by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention and "I do not wishto be limited to the details herein disclosed, but what I claim is:

*1. In a thread holder for weft replenishing looms, a pair of travellingthread engaging surfaces one of which intersects the path of travel ofthe other, means dependent upon shaking of theloom due to operation toactuate the surfaces, and an element operatively related to the surfacesand effective to resist excess movement of said surfaces.

' 2. In a thread holder "for weft replenishing looms, a pair of movablemembers, each having a set of elements one set of which intersects thepath of movement of the other set, the elements engaging and tensioningthe weft threads, and a retarding device to engage the members to resistexcess movement thereof and also prevent movement of the weft threadsoutof engagement with the elements.

3. 'In a thread holder for weft replenishing looms, a pair of meshingweft thread engaging gear members, means to cause rotation of themembers during loomoperation, and a combined retarder and thread guardto resist excess movenient of the members and prevent movement of theweft threads away from the members.

4. In a thread holder for weft replenishing looms, a movable member toengage and tension a weft thread, a support for the member, an actuatoron the support dependent upon vibration of the support incident to loomoperation togive the member a driving impulse, and a retarder 'on thesupport to resist excess movement of the member to prevent the memberfrom having too much motion should the actuator give an excessiveimpulse.

5. In a thread holder for weft replenishing looms, a pair of coa'ctingmembers movable to tension the weft threads, a supporting structure forthe membersanda resilient disk between the structure and members andpressing on the'latter to retard excess movement thereof and limitmovement of the weft threads relatively to the members in a directiontransverse of the members.

6. In a thread holder for weft replenishing looms, a pair of travellingthread engaging surfaces one of which intersects the path of travel ofthe'othen'aseparate support for each surface, means to move one supportrelatively to the other, driving means for one surfaceoperativeregardless of the relative positions -of 'the supports to drive the"other surface 'by a force transmitted through'the threada'and drivingconnections between the surfaces operative regardless of the relativepositions of the supports to cause said surfaces to move together totension the weft threads.

7. In a thread holder for weft replenishing looms, a pair of movablemembers, each having a set of elements one set of which intersects thepath of movement of the other set, means to drive one member during loomoperation, means to position the other member at difierent distancesfrom the first member, the members having direct driving connectionswith each other through the threads effective to cause them to move totension the weft thread regardless of the relative positions of themembers.

8. In a thread holder for weft replenishing looms, a pair of meshingweft thread engaging gear members, one of which rotates about a givenaxis, means to rotate said member about its axis during loom operation,means to position the other member at a plurality of distances from thefirst named member to vary the degree of meshing of the members, thefirst member having driving relation with the second member through thethreads in all positions of the latter to tension the weft threads.

OSCAR V. PAYNE.

